A 400-foot-long boardwalk will soon be built over marshlands to extend and provide new access to the southern tip of Libertyville Township's Casey Trail, according to township Supervisor Kathleen O'Connor.

Construction equipment already is on site leveling the ground, and O'Connor said the nearly one-mile path extension should be complete by early November.

Plans call for a T-shaped path that starts at Castleton Road, where Butterfield Road dead-ends just past Route 137, and goes north over marshland and then under power lines until connecting with the Casey Trail.

Another path is being built from Bull Creek Drive, north of the wetlands, east through a hay farm until it intersects with the proposed boardwalk and path extension, plans show. O'Connor said the township owns that property, as well, and is lowering the farmer's rent due to the new path.

Heather Olson is a local bicycle enthusiast who lives in Arbor Vista, a subdivision along Route 45 north of Casey Road, in unincorporated Libertyville Township. Olson said she enters Casey Trail through an access point off Linden Avenue and she's glad more people are getting similar entryways.

"I'm very lucky to live here," Olson said. "I'm out here every other day. It's an exceptional trail. It has great hills that challenge me and I like the authentic sights, sounds and smells."

When the project is complete, residents can tour the township-owned Liberty Prairie Nature Preserve on both sides of Casey Road, and at one point a connecting path leads into Independence Grove Forest Preserve, maps show.

"Once you get to Independence Grove, you can take other bike paths north to Wisconsin or south along the Des Plaines River into Chicago," O'Connor said.

Similarly, maps show that future bicyclists traveling south on Casey Trail could cross the new boardwalk, take sidewalks across Route 137 and then join another local bike path on Old Barn Circle, a subdivision located behind Sunset Foods.

Construction estimates are at $836,000 so far, O'Connor said. Libertyville Township started using tax dollars to save for this project two years ago, she said. The township still has reserve money from the 1985 open land referendum request, and O'Connor said money will be pulled from that account, as well.

"We're trying to preserve that referendum money for as long as possible so we can use it for multiple projects," O'Connor said. "Like in this case, we have some money set aside but the reserve account is topping us off so we don't have to go in debt."

O'Connor said she also has worked with the Illinois Nature Preservation Commission since portions of the land are registered as protected wildlife.

The extension has been talked about for 20 years, O'Connor said, and topic was resurrected in 2011, when restoration projects in the nature preserve impacted Casey Trail.

"Because it goes through prairies, there's limited parking along the Casey Trail and you can't cut through on foot," O'Connor said. "Now these residents have an access point and don't need to load up their car and drive two miles to Independence Grove."

Tom and Kaye Boling live by Libertyville High School and go biking twice a week. Tom Boling said they take the North Shore Bike Path along Route 176 into Lake Bluff or sometimes exit onto the intersecting Des Plaines Trail and travel north into Independence Grove.

"I only found this Casey Trail two weeks ago when I noticed its connection at Independence Grove," Tom Boling said. "Hills are in short supply in Illinois, and this path has some hills that really give my legs a good burn. I'm blown away that all this stuff is up here."

The Bolings said they're thrilled to see Libertyville's original landscape being restored, and even more excited to know they can tour it by using bike paths.